Biosciences Bonn: LONDON: one weekend was not enough

First thing's first: don't wear cute shoes to walk around the entirety of London. Cute shoes are good for maybe three hours max. Cute shoes are not good for 10 miles in 10 hours. Which is what Saturday consisted of.

Friday evening Brynn and I landed in London Stansted Airport, and an hour on the tube later I saw my friend, Tom, for the first time in three years! Tom studied abroad at Texas A&M during my freshman year, his junior year. We hung out a lot during that time and when I mentioned coming to Europe for a semester he suggested I come visit! Before this study abroad I never thought I would see him again, so that in itself is pretty cool.

SATURDAY was awesome! We walked a total of 10 miles and basically crammed all of the touristy parts of central London into one long day. Tom had only been living in London for six months, so even though he was toting around two puppy-dog tourists, he enjoyed seeing the sights as much as we did because he hadn’t made time to do it by himself yet.

We started at the Tower of London, an old castle that was once used as a prison. We walked across the iconic Tower Bridge, along the River Thames, and back across the London Bridge (cue Fergie lyrics) to The Madison, a fancy rooftop bar with a fantastic view of St Paul’s Cathedral. After drinking ridiculously expensive cocktails, we got back out on the streets to wander the city and find some Black Cabbies and the typical red double-decker busses.

I WALKED ACROSS THE DEATHEATER BRIDGE!!! It’s actually called the Millennium Bridge, but I know it as the bridge in Harry Potter that the Deatheaters destroyed in the Half Blood Price. I just rewatched this clip and it’s so cool to recognize the place and know that I’ve been there!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrX-xN45UE8. We also walked past the Palace Theatre, the original home of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play. If I had more time and more money I would definitely make a trip back to see that performance.

The rest of the day consisted of walking down Southbank past the London Eye, across yet another bridge to Parliament and what should have been a great view of Big Ben, but the clock was under expensive renovation. Meh. We walked through St James park to Buckingham Palace, and down the Mall to Trafalgar Square, and eventually to Chinatown, where we found an authentic Japanese sushi restaurant for a late, late lunch. We then walked through Soho, walking into pub after pub, trying to find a place to wait for one of Tom's friends that wasn’t packed with Rugby fans or men wanting to hit on Tom. We finally found a pub and watched the rest of the England vs Scotland rugby match before venturing back to cook dinner.

Sunday was shopping!! My feet were killing me from the extensive walking tour the day before, and I was honestly dreading walking around all day in the same shoes with my loaded backpack. So we all slept in, had lunch at the apartment, and left around 1pm to go shopping on Oxford Street. Let me just say: God Bless Primark. Primark is basically a larger, more diverse, less expensive version of Forever 21. I found a cute pair of tennis shoes for roughly $8 that saved my feet from falling off and made the rest of the day much more enjoyable. The journey home was no problem, and we made it back to our host family’s house by midnight Sunday.

As the title says, one weekend in London just wasn’t enough. If I ever get the chance to go back, I’ll try to go for at least a week. I want to see the HP play, shop more on Oxford street, spend a day inside the National Gallery, walk more of Chinatown, see Baker Street (the home of Sherlock Holmes), go inside the Tower of London, and walk through some of London’s best parks. There’s so much to see and do, and I want to go back!!